SB Nation - Joey MacDonald

Islanders All-Decade Team: The goalies

Dominik — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:40:47 -0000

More photos » by Douglas Healey - AP

Rick DiPietro's long, strange 2000s trip begins and ends in Bridgeport*. >>*alright, technically 2000-01 was with IHL Chicago, but still: poetic license and all that.

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Note: The "aughts," a regrettable hockey decade in many ways, are coming to a close. Sure, sets of 10 begin with one, not zero -- but picking a starting point when marking time is a subjective human pursuit, like picking your favorite player. We don't call the avocado green appliance decade "the '70s plus 1980," so we're not going to pretend the aughts continue past the fast-approaching Dec. 31, 2009. With that in mind, we'll close out the year by picking our Islanders All-Decade Team. It's a little bit sorrow, a little bit nostalgia, a little bit regret, and a little bit hope.

With five more wins, Dwayne Roloson will become the fourth-winningest Islanders goaltender of the decade.

That speaks not so much to a goalie merry-go-round as to the prominence of three guys: A "15-year" guy whose acquisition defined Mike Milbury decision-making, a future GM who's determined to avoid Milbury's mistakes, and a supposed future Hall of Fame waiver claim whose hot-and-cold 103 games in Orange and Blue was symptomatic of his NHL career.

A poll, and a little more about these guys, after the jump. We'll be tallying votes, but in the comments you can elaborate on your 2000s memories, or even pick who you'd have as backup and third-stringer on the all-decade team.

Rk	Player	From	To	GP	MIN	W	L	T/OT	PTS	PTS%	SO	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%
1	Rick DiPietro	2001	2009	273	15674	117	112	29	263	0.51	14	729	2.79	7681	6952	.905
2	Garth Snow	2002	2006	127	6718	44	52	13	101	0.463	4	309	2.76	3196	2887	.903
3	Chris Osgood	2002	2003	103	5736	49	39	10	108	0.551	6	253	2.65	2639	2386	.904
4	Joey MacDonald	2008	2009	51	2912	14	27	7	35	0.365	1	163	3.36	1657	1494	.902
5	John Vanbiesbrouck	2001	2001	44	2390	10	25	5	25	0.313	1	120	3.01	1177	1057	.898
6	Wade Dubielewicz	2004	2008	37	1926	16	13	2	34	0.548	0	82	2.55	1020	938	.920
7	Yann Danis	2009	2009	31	1760	10	17	3	23	0.383	2	84	2.86	933	849	.910
8	Dwayne Roloson	2010	2010	22	1301	11	5	5	27	0.643	0	63	2.91	688	625	.908
9	Wade Flaherty	2001	2001	20	1017	6	10	0	12	0.375	1	56	3.3	470	414	.881
10	Mike Dunham	2007	2007	19	979	4	10	3	11	0.324	0	61	3.74	552	491	.889
11	Martin Biron	2010	2010	15	830	2	9	2	6	0.231	1	46	3.33	450	404	.898
12	Chris Terreri	2001	2001	8	443	2	4	1	5	0.357	0	18	2.44	205	187	.912
13	Peter Mannino	2009	2009	3	133	1	1	0	2	0.5	0	10	4.51	87	77	.885

This data is from Hockey-Reference.com, and the goalies are listed by games played between the 2000-01 season and 2009-10. The years in the "from/to" columns denote the calendar year in which a season ended. (Yes, I left off the last half of the 1999-2000 season; like I said, human markers of time are as subjective as "player X was bad in November but December magically made it all better.")

Rick DiPietro's save percentage includes his developing-on-the-fly years as well as his playing-while-hurt figures from after the 2008 All-Star break. 2006-07's .919 was his high mark, and he was carrying that same form under Ted Nolan into 2007-08 until ... well, you know.

Chris Osgood's 103 games include that bright 32-25-6/2.50/.910 in 2001-02, as well as the 17-14-4/2.92/.894 he put up the following year, when he was dumped to the Blues for Justin Papineau and an exchange of picks that netted Jeremy Colliton. (Yes, a goaltender who would later appear in two more Stanley Cup finals was traded for Justin Papineau -- and it didn't even feel wrong at the time. This is why every "Osgood for the Hall" discussion always feels caveat-heavy unless you're an Osgood fanatic or family member.)

Garth Snow played 24 more games than Osgood, yielding a higher GAA, lower save percentage and fewer shutouts. But bigger pads. Definitely bigger pads.

Heh, Dwayne Roloson after 22 games has by far the highest win/points percentage of the lot. It will be fun to revisit this after this season's over to see where he stands. The flip-side of such small sample sizes and that particular stat: Martin Biron currently has the worst.

Outliers: The highest save percentage on this list belongs to Wade Dubielewicz, but please don't use that for your "he could have been a starter in this league!" argument. (Alright, seriously do whatever you want. This is for fun.) Breaking my plea from the previous sentence, Yann Danis' minimal sample size but lofty numbers tells me, again, that the Maple Leafs picked the wrong Islanders 2B goalie from last season. To be fair, I'm not sure if the new father Danis would've picked Leafs chaos over Lemaire safety anyway.

Your Islanders Goalie of the Decade

So this position was an easy one: For longevity, for prominence, for a star that shined the brightest, for a guy who carried this team the longest, the straight-forward pick for goaltender on the Islanders 2000s All-Decade Team is Rick DiPietro. Injuries and curious contract aside, he's been the man. It is funny, though, that the guy on this list with the most playoff wins in an Islanders uniform is actually Chris Osgood, who picked up three during that exciting 7-game playoff series with the Leafs that I'm, finally, ready to put to bed.

It's somehow fitting that the brightest star is a guy whose career now hangs at the mercy of rehabbed knees and hips; the second-busiest guy became -- overnight -- the club's scoffed-at but actually quite astute GM; while the guy with the most Isles playoff wins in the decade didn't even win a series, continued to hit rock bottom after he left the Island for Justin freaking Papineau, then resurrected his game enough to play a much-maligned role in the Red Wings winning one Cup and falling just short for a second.

If that doesn't paint a representative picture of the Islanders' curious highs and lows in the 2000s, I don't know what does. I heartily look forward to the 2000-teens, where the future looks brighter at this and every other position. Thank god.

Poll

For the Islanders 2000s All-Decade Team, your pick in goal is:

Ask and Ye Shall Receive, or Be Careful What You Wish For...

blurr1974 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:26 -0000

I made the mistake of pointing out a slow trickle of blog posts for yesterday's previous FTB, and what do you know? It's a full on deluge of posts today! When it rains it pours. I think I've filled my cliche quote for the day...

Are we there yet? (via www.sfjohnson.rtsquad.org)

More on the disaster with the dingos from JaredFromLondon, Toronto Mike, budBlog and Kohma.
Do the holidays have you stressed out? Is there no one who can offer you sane advice for your home entertaining questions? Of course there is, Loser Domi knows just the person!
The Far Away Leaf sees some ugly issues from previous months rearing their ugly head. Are we in for a return of the losing streak?
Get down Joey MacDonald, Viktor Stalberg is up in da hizzy! Oh ya, Luke Schenn returns as well. MLHS gives you da 411. Word.
Frozen Leafs thinks this is no time for Driving Miss Daisy, we need some Days of Thunder!
Random thoughts. Kavel Pubina's got 'em .
Vintage Leaf Memories is reminiscing about the original twelve. Wherefore art thou California Golden Seals!?!
Is the graffiti trying to tell us something? The Torontoist says yes! What say you?
A new season needs a new calendar. Changing On the Fly has something you might kinda sorta think is TOTALLY AWESOME!

UPDATE

Shield stayed up all night, just to write something for you.
Jared has the return of the LOLeafs.

Islanders at Leafs

Chemmy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:54:54 -0000

More photos » by Nathan Denette - AP

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Yesterday we wrote that Chris Pronger would bring a mean streak that Team Canada needs in the Olympics and last night Chris Pronger lived up to his billing by drilling Tavares into the glass from behind. Pronger received a two minute penalty and Tavares lost one of his front teeth so that he can now rock the Dany Heatley look.

No one from the Islanders started a fight with Pronger. No one on their team stood up to a guy who intentionally drilled their star player, their 19 year old wunderkid. Let's hope that streak continues for tonight, because I watched an Islanders team put their tail between their legs last night when faced with physical play. The Leafs don't have Carter, Richards, Briere, Giroux and Van Riemsdyk, but we've got Phil Kessel and a mean streak. Let's make this an unpleasant game for a team that was banged up before last night.

Martin Biron started last night but got torched by the Flyers so I'm guessing we'll see Dwayne Roloson in net tonight. This will be a good chance for the Leafs to exorcise the demons of last week's soul crushing loss to Roloson. I'd say "the Islanders" but that wouldn't be very accurate.

Toskala should be starting for the Leafs, he played very well in the Atlanta game before our defense gave up in the third once the game was well out of hand. However the Leafs play in Boston tomorrow so Joey MacDonald might get the start to save Toskala for tomorrow night. I don't like any of these scenarios to be honest. With Toskala I feel like he plays well just long enough to make you say "oh, maybe I was too harsh" before he shits the bed in a spectacular soul crushing display of aloof ineptitude.

The preview's up early today because we're going to have a bunch of content this afternoon so stay tuned. Remember your SPG picks, check out the excellent Lighthouse Hockey (where we'll make a 2nd period field trip tonight) for Islanders coverage and go Leafs go!

Bruins look to bounce back as they host #81 and the Maple Leafs

Stanley Cup of Chowder — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:48:25 -0000

More photos » by NATHAN DENETTE - AP

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The Bruins will try to bounce back from an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night when they host #81 and the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight at TD Garden in a match-up that NESN is referring to as "Kessel-Mania I".

Know Your Enemy

Toronto Maple Leafs (8-12-7)

Head Coach: Ron Wilson

Season Series: First of six meetings this season

Leading Goal Scorers:

	G	A	P	+/-	PIM
2009 - Niklas Hagman	13	6	19	-2	19

	G	A	P	+/-	PIM
2009 - #81	10	5	15	5	11

Goaltending:

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Jonas Gustavsson	16	821	6	5			43	3.14	429	386	.900	0

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Vesa Toskala	10	537	1	4			35	3.91	259	224	.865	0

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Joey MacDonald	5	279	1	3			13	2.80	134	121	.903	0

Injury Report

Boston Bruins Injuries

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Milan Lucic	ankle	11/26/2009

Toronto Maple Leafs Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Vesa Toskala	groin	12/01/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Mike Van Ryn	knee	09/30/2009
John Mitchell	knee	11/24/2009
Carl Gunnarsson	elbow	12/01/2009
Jonas Gustavsson	heart	12/03/2009

Notes:

- Former Bruin Joey MacDonald will likely get the start in goal for the Leafs tonight.

- I would like to see the Bruins start Tuukka Rask in goal against the team that drafted him. The Bruins didn't hold a morning skate, so we won't know until game-time who the starter will be.

- Toronto actually has a winning record on the road (6-5-4)

- The Bruins will wear their 3rd jerseys tonight for the 5th time this season.

- The Bruins have recalled defenseman Johnny Boychuk from Providence.

- I'm predicting a 65/35 boo to cheer ratio for #81 from the Garden crowd tonight.

- #81 got into a tickle fight with Kris Russell on Thursday night

- The puck drops at 7:00 and the open thread start right here at 6:30.

- For more on the Leafs and tonight's game (and revised colonial history), check out Pension Plan Puppets

Today's Obligatory Embarrassing Leafs Fan YouTube Video

Leafs at Blue Jackets

Chemmy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:20:05 -0000

Jared Boll gets dusted by Luke Schenn

Puck Drop: 7:00 ET Leafs TV

Fresh off of first shutout of the year we've lost starting goaltender Jonas Gustavsson to another catheter ablation and so Joey MacDonald gets the start. Ordinarily this would be a total disaster but at least Vesa Toskala isn't starting.

The last time we played Columbus was 2/19/2009, the day after Tlusty's five goal game when another one of our prospects Justin Pogge stunk out the joint in the shootout after playing a decent game. What I'm getting at here is that Joey MacDonald is a lot better than Justin Pogge.

If the team plays stifling defense against Columbus like they did against Montreal we have a good shot at picking up a win against a stingy Blue Jackets team who are missing a ton of their own defenders. On the other hand look to Anton Stralman to have a big night against a club he felt didn't give him a big shot to crack the lineup.

Remember your SPG picks, check out The Cannon if you want Columbus' take on tonight's game, and go Leafs go!

Game 28 Preview: The Rarely-Seen Buds Make the Trek to Ohio

Mike MacLean — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:32:58 -0000

More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

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They're getting better! The most recent game against the Blackhawks looked more like Jackets hockey than any other game this season, had they played the way they did during the losing streak, the score would have been ugly-very ugly in favor of the 'Hawks.

For the first time in a few years Toronto comes to town. The Leafs are still in the midst of a "re-tooling" (because if I would have said "rebullding" Ole Ironsides Burke would find a way to get me booted off of the internet) and are without either of their top goaltenders. Vesa Toskala is out with an injury, and Gustavsson will be going under the knife for another heart operation. Speaking of Gustavsson, when will the meda give him a new nickname? The Monster? Come on. Worst nickname for a player in all of sport, especially for a rookie. Joey MacDonald, a fellow Bluenoser, will get the start tonight. Mase is in for the Jackets.

The CBJ will be icing the same lineup as the past few games, although Raffi may miss it because his wife is in the hospital prepping for the delivery of the couple's first child. The Leafs have a tough defensive unit, so it will be interesting how the Jackets forwards can cope with that. I also wonder if Kris Russell can continue his red-hot stretch of play tonight. Here's hoping. Look for a good physical battle tonight folks.

Fearless Prediction: CBJ score at least four goals.

Game Time: 7:00pm ET

Opponent's Blog: Pension Plan Puppets

Game Page: Maple Leafs vs Blue Jackets Coverage

TSN Preview: Maple Leafs vs Blue Jackets Preview

TV: FSN Ohio

Radio: WBNS-AM (1460); WWCD-FM (101.1)

More after the jump...

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Toronto has played in Columbus only three times, most recently Nov. 20, 2006, a 4-2 Leafs win. The Blue Jackets would be wise to ignore the standings. After a horrible start, the Maple Leafs are 4-1-2 in their past seven games, including a 3-0 rout of Montreal on Tuesday. It could be a big special- teams game. Although the Blue Jackets excel on the power play, both teams struggle in killing penalties.

Jackets Links:

Columbus Blue Jackets / Columbus Blue Jackets Schedule

Columbus Blue Jackets Roster / Columbus Blue Jackets Stats

Here are the lineups for tonight's tilt:

Columbus Blue Jackets

Kristian Huselius	Antoine Vermette	Rick Nash
R.J. Umberger	Derick Brassard	Jakub Voracek
Jason Chimera	Samuel Pahlsson	Michael Blunden
Raffi Torres	Derek MacKenzie	Jared Boll

Fedor Tyutin	Anton Stralman
Mike Commodore	Jan Hejda
Kris Russell	Mathieu Roy

Steve Mason

Mathieu Garon

EXTRA: Alexandre Picard

INJURED: Fredrik Modin, Andrew Murray, Derek Dorsett, Rostislav Klesla, Marc Methot

Toronto Maple Leafs

Alexei Ponikarovsky	Matt Stajan	Phil Kessel
Niklas Hagman	Mikhail Grabovski	Christian Hanson
Wayne Primeau	Nikolai Kulemin	Lee Stempniak
Jason Blake	Jamal Mayers	Colton Orr

Mike Komisarek	Tomas Kaberle
Luke Schenn	Ian White
Francois Beauchemin	Jeff Finger

Joey MacDonald

Jonas Gustavsson

Maple Leafs 3 v. Canadiens 0: Celebrations Ruined

PPP — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:23:54 -0000

More photos » by Paul Chiasson - AP

Blake: Uhhh there's a fly in my soup Orr: EEEEEEE!!!! A MOUSE!

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Oompa Loompa Doopity Dewed
When Colton Orr Scores
You know that you're screwed

Oompa Loompa Doopity Dinger
And that goes double when
The second's from Finger

What would you if Matt Stajan made it three
Probably boo your team and from the Bell Centre flee!

The Maple Leafs picked a great night to get their first win against a divisional opponent. And to be quite frank, from what I saw, the Canadiens were never in this game. Craig MacTavish described them as too weak and frail to compete with a hungry Leafs' squad and I think that assessment was bang on. On a night when the Leafs' goalies combined for perfection Jim Carey Price didn't bring the kind fo game that he needed. One can't be surprised that Stajan's goal went high glove since the Leafs have long exploited that weakness. Colton Orr scoring though? Yeah, that's freaking shocking. The guy had four career goals coming into the game. Shows how players can get rewarded by going to the freaking net.

In a game that saw the Leafs' defence continue to look like the unit we all expected alongside some pretty truculent forwards there was one glaring bad moment. Finding out that Joey MacDonald was in net because Jonas Gustavsson had to leave due to an elevated heart rate is not the kind of thing that you want to hear when you are driving. Right now it's all precautionary but so was his trip during training camp. Toskala is hurt too. That's not meant to comfort anyone so much as confirm that he is strill injured. Phew. The bright side is that Joey MacDonald, after a pretty poor audition earlier in the season, looked like the guy that posted a .901Sv% on Long Island last year.

It's probably apt that the Leafs' will get credit for the shutout as opposed to either of the goalies because it really was a team effort. The best news of the night though: the Habs will stop having centennial celebrations within a year or two.

So who impressed you guys? Who could have done more? How do you feel about Joey MacDonald taking over the reins?

Gameday Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs @ Dallas Stars (7:00p CDT)

Brandon Worley — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:26:22 -0000

Next Game

Toronto Maple Leafs (1-7-1)
@ Dallas Stars (5-2-4)

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009, 7:00 PM CDT
American Airlines Center

Local TV: FSSW (Not on DISH)
Radio: KTCK 1310 The Ticket

Complete Coverage >

This is one I've had circled on my calendar. The Toronto Maple Leafs, the Dallas Cowboys of Canada, make a rare appearance at the AAC tonight in what should be an extremely entertaining game.

Niklas Hagman makes his return to the AAC for the first time since signing with Toronto as a free agent. Hagman was a key member of the Dallas Stars playoff team in 2008, having a breakout season with 27 goals and 41 points. He had a hat trick in Monday's big 6-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks, which came a week after Hagman was a healthy scratch for the first time since playing for the Florida Panthers.

To make this game even more interesting, Jonas Gustavsson will be in net for the Leafs. You may remember him; the Stars were in the running for his services this season, and watched free agent goaltenders get signed while Gustavsson stalled on his decision. In the end it all worked out; the Stars landed Alex Auld in a brillaint trade and Gustavsson seems poised to take over the starting goaltending job in Toronto.

After the jump, a Q & A with Pension Plan Puppets...

The Dallas Stars:

A little shake up today, as the Stars held their morning skate in Frisco in an effort to get better ready for a home game. So far this season Dallas is 1-2-1 at home and has looked halfway decent in only one game in front of their home crowd.

Matt Niskanen will play, but Mike Modano is sitting this one and is hopeful to play Friday.

Mike Heika takes a stab at the lines for tonight:

Neal-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Benn
Petersen-Wandell-Brunnstrom
Wathier-Sutherby-Barch

Hmm. Looks a lot like what I predicted earlier today (actually, I just copied the line combos from the last game Wathier played in).

The Toronto Maple Leafs:

Here's a Q & A I did with Pension Plan Puppets. You can find my side of the interview here.

In the offseason, a lot Stars fans might have become jealous with the amount of moves Brian Burke was making for the Leafs, while Dallas stayed relatively quiet. What's gone wrong that the Leafs have struggled so mightily?

It's a situation that you guys might be familiar with: Crappy Goalieitis. Unfortunately, despite a couple of major off-season surgeries, a long recovery period, and the threat of competition Vesa Toskala came out and did nothing more than put an exclamation point on the belief that he is washed up. Couple that with Jonas Gustavsson's heart issues and tweaked groin and the Leafs' goaltending has been suspect.

The defence has three new members most nights and the lack of chemistry due to a compressed pre-season schedule hasn't helped. Of course, the nerves caused by wondering if every shot is going in has contributed as well.

But at the end of the day, it all starts in goal. Once that's settled down the team will as well.

Let's just say that Toronto's goaltending so far this season has been......a bit off. With Jonas Gustavsson returning to the ice, should fans expect this area to improve drastically or is it much to early to hope he can be their savior in net?

Even by being mediocre by league standards he would be a drastic improvement. If he's tending goal at .900 that's already a huge jump over Toskala's .812 or whatever low sv% Joey MacDonald had before the game against the Canucks.

It's hard to say what Gustavsson will do because even though he had great numbers before coming over from the SEL so did Mikael Tellqvist (ouch). From what we have seen though he definitely makes good use of his big body. He doesn't struggle with traffic, he challenges shooters, and he has made a couple of ridiculous pad saves. He has a habit of getting a bit out of position but that's what Francois Allaire is supposed to improve.

How jealous should Dallas fans be that Nik Hagman got away?

Very. We love him. He'll likely go into the books at Fletcher's best signing during his second go-around. For $3M/year and four years the Leafs have a player that is the definition of the 'model professional'. Last year he was on pace to put up about 50+ points before Brendan Witt scrambled his brains with an absolutely brutal elbow to the head. He has the skill to play on any team's top six forwards but combines that with the kind of effort that third and fourth liners would be well advised to replicate.

Also, he has a smoking hot wife so you'll miss seeing her at games.

Here's the projected line combos for tonight:

Forwards
Ponikarovsky Grabovski Blake
Stalberg Stajan Stempniak
Kulemin Mitchell Hagman
Primeau Wallin Orr

Defence
Kaberle Komisarek
Beauchemin White
Exelby Schenn

Goalie
Gustavsson

Injuries:

Dallas: D Matt Niskanen is probable. RW Jere Lehtinen (intercostal muscle) and C Mike Modano (ribs) are out.

Toronto: G Vesa Toskala (knee) is doubtful. RW Phil Kessel, D Mike Van Ryn (knee) and D Jamie Heward (concussion) are out.

Tuesday links: Welcoming back Yan Stastny to the healthy scratch list edition

averagejoe — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:00:50 -0000

I'm tired. I got like two hours of sleep Saturday night and was up early Monday. I haven't done this since college and I gotta say, it's nice to get eight hours of sleep on a regular basis. Anyway, links? Links.

Blues news

Fragile D.J. King is going to be out 8-to-10 weeks with a broken hand. Yan Stastny will be up from the Peoria. [Belleville News-Democrat]
The Blues got physical at practice today, Eric Brewer is close to being fully operational and Barret Jackman had a kid. All that, and more in this blog. [STLtoday.com]
Alex Steen, recovering from a broken wrist, took his dog out for a walk on Monday. [KTVI]

Hockey news

Dutchie sighting: Lee Stempniak gets the game-winner for the Leafs in its first win of the year. Other results? Rangers beat Phoenix, Montreal tops the Islanders and Chicago beans Minnesota. [Yahoo! Sports]
Boy, the Vancouver/Detroit game sure looks interesting. Go natural disaster?[Yahoo! Sports]
Marian Gaborik had a game that sums up his career: He scored twice and left with an injury. [ESPN]
ESPN's power rankings. If you get riled up over this we can't be friends, not even if you offer free beer. I'll take the beer, you'll just have to leave. [ESPN]
The Ducks are sending a young d-man back to juniors. Don't get any ideas, Blues. [ESPN]
Ilya Kovalchuk has a broken foot. If he were a college football player, some moron on TV would be saying how he cost himself some money but not getting his cash before getting hurt. [TSN]
Joey MacDonald was a big fan of Cujo growing up. Me too. He's a goalie in the NHL. I do a links post for a hockey blog. .... Anyone have a beer? [TSN]
Old man Jerry Moyes is going to sell his team to the NHL. Wayne Gretzky hasn't agreed to the sale. [TSN]
The Colorado Avs might be ... good? [Mile High Hockey]

Other links

Pedobear is on the loose. [Geek Pad Show]
Holy shit, every opposing team should go to this Web site and look up David Perron and others. This site is awesome. [The Name Engine]
Too lazy to shave? Want to help raise money for charity? Movember. [Movember]
From NatetheGreat.: Detroit sucks. [Consumerist]

Video

I'm running out of videos. Here's some robot chicken. The giraffe reminds me of myself watching a Blues loss.

gametimelinks(at)gmail.com. Hildy is up next.

The Week Ahead: October 26th

Zachary Zielonka — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:15:31 -0000

More photos » by Steve Nesius - AP

about 1 month ago: Tampa Bay Lightning' s Vincent Lecavalier (4) skates off the ice while Buffalo Sabres' Derek Roy (9), Chris Butler, center, and Drew Stafford (21) celebrate Stafford's goal against the Lightning during the third period of their NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009 in Tampa, Fla. Stafford's goal tied the game and forced it into overtime. Buffalo won 3-2 in a shootout. (AP Photo/Steve Nesius)

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Coming off a complete sweep on the Florida road trip, the Sabres play three games this week including the pivotal ninth game of the season for Tyler Myers. After Wednesday night's game in New Jersey, the Sabres have to make a decision on whether Myers is going to stay with the team or if the team is going to return him to juniors. Daniel Paille's trade should have been the signal that the team is committed to keeping both Tyler Myers and Tim Kennedy in the lineup but Darcy Regier's comments to the Buffalo News at this point is showing that the team has not made a decision:

"I haven't [made a decision], and we haven't, because we know what the time frame is," the Sabres' general manager said over the weekend. "We know that we've got the games to watch him, and we'll take that time.

"As a group, we really haven't talked about it a lot because we're going to allow it to play out, then we'll make a decision afterward."

The Sabres most likely are just playing a bluff here due to the fact that Myers has played a phenomenal first eight games this season and is starting to get some Calder Trophy consideration this early in the season. Whether his play will drop off as the season will have to be seen but at this point, the Sabres would be in a public relations nightmare if they sent this kid down to juniors just to save a year on his contract.

Buffalo plays three games this week, two on the road and one at home. They will also play another dreaded three games in four nights which will become a staple in the schedule over the next few weeks. We take a look at the games after the jump.

Wednesday @ New Jersey:

The Devils have always been a thorn in the Sabres side as they are 29-21-12 at home against the Sabres. Martin Brodeur is 27-14-5 in his career against the Sabres and will be starting this game as the Devils last game was Saturday. New Jersey is 6-3 this season which puts them third in the Atlantic division, three points behind the Rangers and six points behind the Penguins. Zach Parise is still continuing to impress many in the league as he leads the Devils in goals and in 16 career games against Buffalo, Parise has five goals and four assists.

Friday vs. Toronto

Toronto is experiencing the worst start in franchise history at 0-7-1, with their only overtime loss coming in the season opener against the Canadiens. The Leafs are going to be hungry for their first win of the season and for the Sabres sake, hopefully it will have already happened before these two teams meet on Friday. Toronto plays two games before they meet the Sabres, one against Anaheim and the other against Dallas. The Maple Leafs major problem is still goaltending with both Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson are both injured which has left Joey MacDonald in the starting position. Both Gustavsson and Toskala should return to the lineup this week. The one thing that the Maple Leafs do well is fight. In eight games this season, the team has ten fights and Colton Orr has four of those fights. Patrick Kaleta should be prepared to drop the gloves in this game.

Saturday @ New York Islanders

The Islanders looked pretty bad against a Sabres team that struggled on their own in their first meeting on October 16th. The Sabres chased goaltender Dwayne Roloson after he allowed four goals on 12 shots. Backup goaltender Martin Biron looked better allowing only two goals on 22 shots. Expect to see Patrick Lalime in this game as it will be part of a back to back series. The Sabres will see the Islanders again four days later on November 4th.

Around the Division

Boston will play two games this week as they are looking to try and recover from some of the major injuries that key players have suffered. The Canadiens will play four games this week, two on the road and two at home. Toronto will also play four games this week all on the road. Finally, Ottawa will play three Southeast division teams this week as they try and catch the Sabres for the Northeast division lead.